If your copyrighted work has been uploaded to TikTok without your permission, TikTok has a formal DMCA process for getting it removed. It is straightforward, as long as you use the right channel.

The official form is the only channel that counts: TikTok’s copyright infringement report form.

This matters more than it sounds. Reports sent through general support tickets, comment reports, or the in-app “Report” button on a video will not be processed as DMCA notices. If you want the content removed under copyright, it has to go through this form.

Open it and follow the prompts. You will identify yourself as the copyright owner or an authorized agent, describe your original work, paste the exact links to the infringing videos, and sign the two standard statements (a good-faith belief that the use is unauthorized, and that your information is accurate and you are authorized to act) by typing your full legal name. If you want help wording the description and the ownership statement, our DMCA notice generator produces that language for you to adapt into the form.

Two things make the difference between a clean removal and a rejection:

  • Use the exact video URLs, the full links to each infringing video, not a profile page or a hashtag.
  • Keep one rights holder and one underlying work per submission. Mixing claims across different songs, films, or photos in a single form slows the review and increases the chance of rejection.

After you submit, you will get an automated confirmation email with a case number. Save it. TikTok usually acts on valid reports within 24 to 72 hours.

Removing a video is easy. Banning the account is harder.

A single valid report gets a video taken down. Getting the whole account suspended is a separate goal, and there are two ways to reach it.

The strike route. TikTok runs a three-strike copyright policy: an account that gathers three valid copyright strikes is suspended and eventually terminated. This is the most reliable way to take down a repeat infringer, but two details shape how you do it.

  • Strikes issued in quick succession can be consolidated into one. Submitting ten reports against the same account in the same hour may register as a single strike, not ten. Space your submissions out over days or weeks so each lands on its own.
  • Strikes expire. TikTok nullifies a copyright strike after 90 days, so all three need to be active at the same time for the account to cross the line.

The immediate route. If you need the account gone now rather than waiting out three strikes, you have to make the case directly: explain thoroughly why the account itself should be removed, not just the individual videos. TikTok may still refuse. If it does, follow up on your case, and if that leads nowhere, escalate to the company that puts TikTok on people’s phones. Apple distributes the app through the App Store and runs a process for intellectual property disputes, so a complaint that the app is hosting content that infringes your copyright applies pressure TikTok cannot brush off. File it through Apple’s App Store intellectual property dispute form. (On Android, the equivalent is Google’s legal removal form, selecting Google Play and then Copyright.)

If your work is being shared on other platforms too, the approach is similar everywhere: identify the work, point to the exact links, and send it to the platform’s copyright channel. Our guides to X, Reddit, and VK cover those, and the explainer on what the DMCA is covers why these notices work.